Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, dubbed "Obamacare" by the GOP right, Fox News has provided validation for those who oppose it. And in order to provide further validation, they utilize the services of their "Medical A Team" member and "serial medical misinformer" Dr. Mark Siegel who, as a loyal member of the "fair & balanced" news staff, is very up front about his vehement opposition to health care reform. Now that the president still maintains a slight lead in the key state of Ohio, the "fair & balanced" Fox news host, Megyn Kelly has, in picking up on a story popular on right wing sites, decided that Ohio voters need to know that they shouldn't vote for Obama because one of their doctors is against "Obama" care. How does Kelly know that? Why from a letter to the editor written by a *partisan Ohio doctor. So who cares if you stand to lose your health care if Romney wins! Certainly not alleged "news" anchor, Megyn Kelly!

Last Friday, Megyn Kelly began with her characteristic intensity when she said that "a doctor, in the key battleground state of Ohio, is getting **key national attention today as he tries to rally colleagues and voters against President Obama's health care law." She reported that "a gastroenterologist has published a letter to the editor of various Ohio newspapers, slamming the law arguing that (She emphasized "slamming") "it is a fiscal disaster." She showed a visual of the letter from Dr. Farid Naffah and asked her audience to "look how long it is." She added that the doctor claims that the law will "lead to a severe physician shortage." Her voice rising, she introduced Siegel and said, "this is extraordinary, he's gotten dozens of physicians to sign on." (42, actually) Looking very earnest, she described how "he goes off" on how, if you think this law is good, you're being "bamboozled."

Siegel engaged in his requisite fear mongering about how there will ultimately be a scarcity of doctors willing to work with "Obamacare." Kelly read a section of the letter which asserted that doctors will be "subjugated to bureaucratic authorities." Kelly cued up Siegel with her comment that the president denies that there will be this type of control. This provided Siegel with an opportunity to advance the right wing meme that a physicians advisory board will ration care - a meme that Siegel actively promotes. He whined about doctor's liability and said that "we're in a terrible position under this law."

After Kelly made the claim that despite how NY City is liberal, there are more and more op-eds and doctors "anecdotally talking about Obamacare....," she cued up Siegel with a question about what he's hearing because he's "a really highly respected doctor." He claimed that doctors "can't sustain private practice" under health care reform and expressed concern for rural patients whose doctors, he feels, won't be able to effectively function under the law.

Kelly provided further validation with her claim that fewer good doctors take insurance if "you really want to see a great doctor, you better be prepared to pay cash." (Which, one assumes Kelly has more of than you're average person who, without Obamacare, will go to the emergency room and this means increase prices for the rest of us). Siegel predicted that more doctors will drop out of insurance.

There are, obviously, counterpoints to be made. But you didn't and you won't hear them on this "fair & balanced" Fox "news" show!

*Not mentioned by Kelly is the fact that this doctor hosted a fund raiser for a GOP congressional candidate (who compared Obama to Hitler) at his "beautiful estate."

**Fact Check - Megyn is full of malarky. A check, on Friday, of the doctor's name yielded only articles on right wing websites such as "The Daily Caller." There was nothing on any of the mainstream websites.

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Siegel engaged in his requisite fear mongering about how there will ultimately be a scarcity of doctors willing to work with “Obamacare.” Kelly read a section of the letter which asserted that doctors will be “subjugated to bureaucratic authorities.”

AKA, “death panels.”

Like VP Biden said at his debate, this seems to come up every four years; it was BS then, and it’s BS now . . .

Megyn Kelly is the epitome of “I got mine, so forget yours!”. She’s the only Fox News host I watch regularly (I watch her at work), just because I want to see what new right/law/convenience she’s gleefully parading to take from others- despite having fought tooth and nail for it to apply to herself on a previous broadcast.

The rest of them, I tune in when I can see the new low coming a mile away, or have to see what horrible spin they put on the topic, but I absolutely can’t miss Megyn Kelly. She’s such a horrid person it’s almost comical.

And I can’t help but notice that Stewart and Colbert both rail on her harder than the rest of Fox News, often specifically because of that.